{"id":4634,"date":"2008-10-20T14:49:58","date_gmt":"2008-10-20T18:49:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/?p=4634"},"modified":"2012-01-30T17:35:26","modified_gmt":"2012-01-30T21:35:26","slug":"new-leadership-at-helm-of-spi-pat-hostetter-martin-retires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/2008\/10\/new-leadership-at-helm-of-spi-pat-hostetter-martin-retires\/","title":{"rendered":"New Leadership at Helm of SPI: Pat Hostetter Martin Retires"},"content":{"rendered":"
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New SPI director Sue Williams with her predecessor Pat Hostetter Martin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A leadership change has occurred at EMU\u2019s annual Summer Peacebuilding Institute (SPI), with long-time director Pat Hostetter Martin retiring. Her replacement, Sue Williams, moved to Harrisonburg in the early fall from her previous base in the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n

CJP director Lynn Roth had warm words of praise for Martin\u2019s years of service \u2013 not just for her 11 years at EMU but also for her 18 years of service with Mennonite Central Committee, focused upon East Asia. \u201cPat\u2019s commitment, passion, vision, hope and wisdom have been inspiring to people throughout the world,\u201d said Roth.<\/p>\n

In announcing Sue Williams\u2019 appointment, Lynn Roth emphasized the wealth of experience she brings to EMU. \u201cSue comes to this position with approximately 25 years of experience in the conflict transformation field. Since 2000 she has been working as an independent consultant, assisting and training in conflict analysis, management, prevention of escalation, program design, strategic reviews and evaluation of projects. She has done this in countries including Rwanda, Northern Ireland, Cambodia, Guatemala, Sri Lanka, Kenya and Myanmar.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like Martin, Williams has spent her entire adult life working in some way to increase peace in the world. Both women worked in tandem with their husbands for much of their professional lives. Williams is no longer able to do so \u2013 her husband, Steve, died of a heart attack last December just after returning from a consultation in Cyprus and re-joining his wife at their home in Milton Keynes, England. She had just returned home from a consultation in Rwanda. Sue Williams\u2019 move to SPI is part of her journey toward living and working without her husband to whom she was married for 26 years.<\/p>\n

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Pat Hostetter Martin, with husband Earl, before the home they have shared with hundreds. Photo by Jon Styer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Retiree: Pat Hostetter Martin<\/h2>\n

Work Experience<\/h3>\n

At age 23, Martin joined Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) to work in Vietnam. She was assigned to work in Quang Ngai City in central Vietnam where there was heavy U.S. bombing and many refugees. Martin and other volunteers offered medical care, food aid, material assistance and vocational classes to internally displaced people.<\/p>\n

In 1968, Pat married Earl Martin, also a Mennonite worker in Vietnam. They finished their three-year term together, returned to the United States for further schooling, and then went back to Quang Ngai province for two years until the end of the war in 1975.<\/p>\n

The Martins spent most of the 1980s and early 1990s working for MCC, including a three-and-a-half-year stint in the Philippines and nine years as co-secretaries for MCC\u2019s East Asia program.<\/p>\n

From the late 1990s to the present, Martin has studied and worked at EMU, playing a leadership role in SPI for 11 years.<\/p>\n

Outstanding Personal Qualities<\/h3>\n

Open-door hospitality and egalitarian community living, as these examples show:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. From 1997 to the present, Pat and Earl have shared their home with close to 100 people from dozens of backgrounds and multiple religions. They have celebrated the marriages of three of these residents, plus the births of four of them. And they have hosted weekly community meals.<\/li>\n
  2. Both Martins have been key players in the founding of Crossing Creeks, a therapeutic rural community near EMU where persons with persistent mental illness live, play and work together with staff and volunteers in a mutual search for well-being.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    One (of Many) Challenges Faced<\/h3>\n

    In 1975, the Martins were parents of two children, aged 1 and 3. A book by Earl, Reaching the Other Side, graphically describes his decision to stay behind during the chaos of the Communists\u2019 takeover of South Vietnam, while the U.S. and their proxies fled. In an effort to protect their children, Pat took them aboard one of the last evacuation flights from their province. After almost five months of separation, the Martins re-united in Lagos, Nigeria, where Pat\u2019s parents, B. Charles and Grace Hostetter, were living. (In 1993, Pat and Earl returned to Vietnam, spending six months as MCC\u2019s interim country representatives and living in the northern part for the first time.)<\/p>\n

    Enjoyments<\/h3>\n

    Time to play with her 3-year-old granddaughter, Sophia. Swimming, hiking and bicycle riding. Reading, almost a book a week. Writing: she and Earl hope to write a book with son Hans.<\/p>\n

    Church Affiliation<\/h3>\n

    Shalom Mennonite Congregation in Harrisonburg, Virginia<\/p>\n

    Education<\/h3>\n

    BA, social work, Goshen College, Indiana. Grad certificate, occupational therapy, San Jose State University, California.
    \nMA in conflict transformation, EMU.<\/p>\n

    Strengths Given To SPI<\/h3>\n

    Co-workers Bill Goldberg and Valerie Helbert have written: \u201cMany are the times when we have seen Pat, in the middle of an important project with a deadline, stop what she was doing and devote as much time as was needed to someone who came into the office to talk. It didn\u2019t matter if the person had an important matter or was discussing the day\u2019s events. Pat gave the person her full attention for as long as was needed to send the person on their way feeling heard and understood and in better spirits. We see this as one of her most important assets, and the one that we will strive to maintain at SPI.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Memorable Quotes<\/h3>\n

    \u201cI believe we are all called to be passionately who we are. I have spent my life trying to share who I am with other people, while trying to understand what they do and how and why they believe as they do. Of course, I have been changed by the people I\u2019ve met, and I suppose some have been changed by meeting me.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

    \u201cI have come to believe there are many ways of experiencing God and of seeing God at work in this world, and I have come to respect them all. The most important lesson that Jesus gave us was the primacy of love, and that is how I try to live my faith now \u2013 through expressing love and receiving it from others, regardless of their religious or social backgrounds.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

    A student asked Martin how healing happens in healthy families. She replied, \u201cI don\u2019t know, but I know it happens around food.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

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    Sue Williams has been tested and tempered in war zones. Photo by Jon Styer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    New Director: Sue Williams<\/h2>\n

    Work Experience<\/h3>\n

    Too vast to list in full here, but highlights include:<\/p>\n